Rev’s Thought Dump

WARNING: Doing this with FileVault on will lock you out of the files in the user directory.  Pretty much for ever.  Double check.  It’s not on by default.  But you never know.  And access to the key chain can be a littel fowled up.  Just nuke it and start over.

I recently picked up a PowerBook from a friend.  Oh how long I have lusted after the PowerBook.  And let me tell you.  It’s SO sexy. I mean, I have a BlackBook, technically a superior machine.  But this… this is like race car sexy….aaaany who.  That’s not the point.  Point is he gave it to me and didn’t give me the password.  After some googling around I found the answer, as follows:

• Reboot the system and hold down Command(Apple key) - S
• At the prompt type: /sbin/fsck -y
• and then: /sbin/mount -uw /
• and finally: passwd <username>

What this does is reboot into single user mode (Oh Noes!  Command Line!  Text!!!).  Then the next two commands (Listed above the prompt in Leopard) will mount in read/write mode the file system (You really don’t need to know this) and lastly typing passwd followed by the user whose password you want to change will prompt you for a new password and ask you to verify it.

Reboot and you’re done!

Even more wonderous polls to enlighten and amuse you!

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Have at them! Know that your answers for the last polls were educational indeed and helped, at least in my eyes, settle a debate.  I’ll leave it to you as to which one it was.

Since I post so infrequently on this site sometimes thoughts back up.  In this case thoughts that include polls that can’t really be quickly blasted out across twitter. So here are two that have come up in conversation lately.

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Let’s see if this thing can handle two polls in one post.  As always, thank you all for participating in this very scientific research.  Your donations to the common knowledge go far behind simply amusement.  They… no.. who am I kidding… it’s all for a chuckle.

I’ve been having issues with Vista, of course.  It can get into a state where SOMETHING on the system freaks out and I can’t even pull task manager up.  I can see it’s icon in the dock going all crazy, but I can’t bring up the task list window and try and fix problems.

What I really wanted was top for windows.  But I couldn’t find that, sometimes being all graphical is a bad thing. But I did manage to find something close enough to what i was looking for: taskkill.  Use it thusly,

taskkill /IM taskmgr.exe

This should kill off that pesky process/app gone mad.  As it was I ran it on task manager and my system returned to normal. So next time you need to kill something like firefox and task manager just won’t come up - how likely is that, really? - try taskkill.

P.S. I have a Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0Ghz system with 2 Gigs of RAM and my experience “Rating” is 3.4.

I loath you, Vista.

I’ve been trying to remember to blog I’ve got a number of good fixes to document including wp-hascash error corrections and getting wifi to work properly in Ubuntu with an Atheros chipset. But I’m just so overwhelmed with work and life. Oh well. Soon.

So, there I am getting my lunch at a chain eatery. I have their stupid little club card and decide to cash it in and pay for some of my meal with it. After much sliding of cards and punching of touch screens the clerk finally tells me I’ll owe .54 cents. So I make to hand him my debit card and he looks at me like I’ve just shit in my hand and I’m now trying to hand it to him.

“No. No mang. We canna do that. 54 cents no. You got cash?”

“No, I don’t have cash. Just my card. Just run it.” I hand it again.

“No, not 54 cent. We take charge for that. Not 54 cent.” he continues to stare at me like I’m hiding money in my pocket, and just won’t give it to him.

“Not my problem. Just run it.”

“You no want sandwich then?”

“*sighs* just keep the chips.” I give in.

“There you take your free sandwich.” he sneers at me and goes back to making sandwiches.

Oh, my free sandwich? Yeah, we have an agreement. You’re offering me these silly points if I’ll eat at your place and fill your system with my sales statistics. So let’s not act like you, joe sandwich slinger, have just bent over backwards and given me food from your kids mouths.

But, that attitude isn’t really my complaint. I’m annoyed that companies will always have this Atlas’ burden take on the surcharge for purchase below certain amounts or for using debit for gas. Buck the hell up. It’s not my problem. Don’t put your operating expenses off on me, in my face.

I don’t come in to work and tell my boss, “I had a crappy time getting out of bed this morning and had a flat tire on the way in. You’re gonna need to give me $50 out of pocket for today.”

Noooo I have that kind of thing wrapped up in what I make. Maybe I get a cost if living raise once a year. That’s how it works. And if I can’t swing it on what I’m making I change jobs to raise my salary. I don’t flipping nit pick my boss everytime I see him.

It’s your business. Don’t throw the fact that it costs you more to run sub $5 charges in my face. Structure your pricing to deal with it. And stop complaining about taking my money. Jeez. Pisses me off.

I don’t know how many times I’ve stared down gas station attendents over crap like this. Your problem. Not mine. Run your business or don’t.

And don’t get me started on places that only take cash. OMG! Catch up with the world, people.

And then there are stores that close before I even get off work. So you WANT to fail? All these businesses so don’t want my money!

*heaving chest and smashed keyboard*

Okay, got that off my chest. Have a nice day.

So, one of the new features on the iPhone is A-GPS. When I heard about everyone and their brothers complaining that the 1st gen iPhone lacked gps I couldn’t see the point of all the fuss. Certainly if you’ve bought such an expensive phone you know where you are at all times. Or are at least within a block of a street sign. Let’s face it, it’s probably not a good idea to drag this thing out into the woods camping either.

But there has been one use I’ve had in the back of my mind. And now that I’ve got the new phone I’ve decided to give geocaching a try. (www.geocaching.com) What had also seemed silly and pointless at first, kept growing on me and now the two initially pontless things have met and given each other purpose.

I started going after my first “cache” yesterday and took a little stroll down the street from my office. The gps worked pretty well and the cache was simple to find. But it really sparked a fire with the realization that these things are everywhere and only a few of us know about them. I signed the small log included in the cache and then swapped out an item for the next person to find. All the while trying to act subtle and inconspicuous as I retrieved and then returned the cache to it’s hiding place.

I mean, what kid hasn’t wanted to be a spy at one point or another. And now I see the appeal.

So today at lunch I headed off to do a multi-waypoint cache. With a multi-waypoint the first coordinates you get lead you to a clue that you use to figure out the coordinates of the next. You’ll hop from waypoint to waypoint until you find the cache.

On this second trip I learned a few things. First, trust your first gut reaction. I stood next to the first item for a few minutes while I fiddled with the gps and read the clues. I knew it was there but just didn’t look good and hard.

The second was, maybe I need to get a good pair of gloves. I was feeling around under the lid of a light when I felt webs and debris. I pulled my hand out and down came this guy(see photo at bottom). I swear I don’t know how I wasn’t bitten.

In the end my lunch break timed out and I was a little too aprehensive to start combing the place. (You’re supposed to be sly and collected so as not to give the cache away to people who aren’t playing and might walk off with the loot.)

I tried another cache a few hours ago with the kids. I told them we were on treasure hunt and I thought they might really get into it. Boy did they ever. They made a point of trying to ask everyone who walked by if they could help us find the treasure.

In the end I didn’t find the last cache on that one either. Though it’s hard to do some good searching when you’re paranoid and your kids are screaming “Did you find the twessure yet?!” Plus I think I might have had to reach way down into some rocks and I’d learned that lesson earlier in the day.

So anywho. I’ll likely keep looking. The people are friendly (the owner of the cache I found emailed me and was encouraging), it’s fun being a spy with gadgets, and it’s something to get you outdoors and moving around.

There are many more details to the whole thing but I’ve already gone over my usual 140 characters. So hit www.geocaching.com and look into it if you’re intersted.

Hey, look at this. The wordpress guys put out an iPhone app. Pretty damn handy. Now I can fire off a blog post from anywhere. Hopefully this can help my blog compete for my attention against Twitter.

Anywho, hopefully this will breath a little life into the blog though, I have to admit that the lack of cut and past is going to make it a real pain in the ass to do links to articles and other sites. Oh well, we’ll see.

So, there’s a swell in the murmuring about Ctr-Alt-Chicken. It’s been almost two years since the last episode and I for one am STILL chomping at the bit for the next one.

So here’s my idea:

Alex, among others have asked us to follow them on twitter.  Now that he’s got gobs and gobs of us listening to his every move, let’s turn that around and let him know that we want more CTRL-ALT-Chicken. On Monday June 30th at 12:00 Noon Pacific Coast Pacific everyone tweet @alexalbrecht with “CTRL-ALT-Chicken”. Hopefully enough of us can make the point that we’re still interested in the show - and he’s said that the project isn’t dead yet.

That’s it. Spread the word. At the very least we can drop twitter, again.  But that’s like beating a dead horse.

Monday June 30th @ 12:00 Noon Pacific Coast Time

@alexalbrecht : CTRL-ALT-Chicken

So we’re all trying to take in the full meaning of the impending 3G iPhone release. We’ve sorted out the pricing on Apple’s side of it, $199 for the 8 Gig phone and $299 for the 16 Gig.  Sorted out the AT&T side of it, +$30 to your phone plan vs. the 1st Gen +$20. And now we’re trying to figure out the 1st Gen’s worth.

People initially reported the 1st Gen market as “Sunk”. Everyone who was trying to sell off their first gen phones all supposedly groaned at once at the announcement that the 3G was going to be cheaper than the phones they’re trying to move, to of course make some cash back towards the new phone. But after a few hours of thought I think people are starting to turn that prediction around. When you consider that AT&T and Apple are making a few changes in the way they sell and activate the 3G iPhones the 1st Gen could become very sought after.

3G’s are reportedly NOT going to be available online and I can believe it given that there’s no option to pre-order. Supposedly you’re going to have to go into an Apple or AT&T store to purchase your new phone and have it activated on the spot.  A 10 - 15 minute process - an you thought you waited in line for hours LAST time.

This in store activation is supposedly meant to keep people from buying the phones in bulk to either ship overseas, or to buy with the intention of NEVER signing up for AT&T service.  So basically, like most other plan locked phones, you buy it and activate it right there before you can leave the store. I have to imagine that you’ll be able to reactivate via iTunes after that as restoring is one of the prescribed solutions for issues on the support sign.  So basically it’s to get you to pen that AT&T contract that so many iPhone buyers DIDN’T do. And if you’re looking to use the 3G on another network - or as a cheaper hopped up iTouch - you’re out of luck. (Cute that they’re initially cheaper than the touch)

Another boost for the 1st Gen phones is the difference in plan pricing.  Like I said a full $10 a month for 3G over the Edge plan. What about folks, like my old man, who live in an area that doesn’t get 3G. I don’t know if you checked but Apple and AT&T aren’t selling 1st Gen iPhones anymore, not even refurb or clearance. Is the GPS and extended battery life worth the additional $240+ over the 2 year contract? Yeah so let’s go back and look at some math $199 + $240 = $439 for the 8Gig.  And for the 16Gig $299 + $240 = $539.

Now, I’m not trying to say screw it all, I mean, I expected the 3G to cost more.  Cause it’s full of 3G yum sauce, right? But it’d be nice to not wave the “New Low Price” around like they’re doing some sort of favor. Unless of course it works better for you to amortize it out over time. In that case, WOo HOO!  *shrug*

So, if you can score an 8 Gig for it’s original price or lower you’re still making out cheaper, same with the 16.  And that is of course assuming you don’t want/need/can make use of the 3G and GPS.

That’s the money side of it.  The other thing to note is, as I said earlier, AT&T and Apple are taking steps outside of software to keep the iPhone on the AT&T network. AT&T is aiming to at least get an early termination fee out of you by making you sign on the line when you pick up the phone. If, like me, you’re fine with AT&T the lack of unlocking is probably not such a big deal.  But who knows what changes they’ll have on the software side going forward.

Reports have it that Firmware 2 is already “jailbreakable” via a method that it is improbable that Apple will be able to correct. But what about going forward? Jailbreaking may prove more difficult on the 3G phones. Though, since I’m not intimately familiar with the process - besides clicking the button that says “Jailbreak me” I could be speaking to a moot point.

But firmware does bring up an interesting point about support.  It’s clear that Apple no longer intends on shipping any Edge iPhones. That ship has sailed.  But what is their commitment to keeping the firmware current between the two? I kind of think that 2.0 is going to have everything I’m going to want from Apple and the App Store will likely fill the gaps (And don’t forget 3rd party apps via jailbreaking).

But how long before its “obsoleted”? The turn over rate on iPods is already pretty high. But I’m the weird kind of guy who still has my 4Gig Nano and held onto my first Nokia cellphone for 4 years. I don’t foresee buying another phone unless this one breaks, or Apple release another Rev so feature packed it makes the 3G look like an old brick phone. I just hope it’ll be supported that long.

A bit of info. Even though you can’t find the information anywhere (without digging), AT&T is still activating 1st Gen iPhones with the initial price packages. So if you can find an Edge phone you can save yourself $10 a month.

I think that’s all I meant to say.  I got interrupted part way through writing and kind of lost the train of thought there.  But in summation, the 1st Gen is on the road NOT to being shunned and trashed, but most likely coveted for it’s cheaper data plan, easy jailbreaking and unlocking, and simple nostalgia at being the 1st of the iPhone family. Plus I know people buying them up to ship to poor shunned and 3Gless China.

Grab ‘em while you can.